


ice cold

by kinpika



Series: time, and time again [2]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M, I suppose, Kinda domestic too, Pointless fluff, Post-Canon, Using my Ryder's name for once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 20:55:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10929870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kinpika/pseuds/kinpika
Summary: Boots had been lost the moment she walked into Tartarus’ little upstairs area, and Reyes may have received one to the face.Elaaden? Cake walk. Upstairs room in Tartarus? As if he hadn't installed fans by now.





	ice cold

Hot weather was not something she was largely accustomed to. Well, no, that was unfair to Mars, but even then she spent more days inside in the air-conditioned environments than out on patrols. Even on the Citadel, there was really nothing such as a _summer_ — climate controlled, all day, all year. Any slight temperature change was just such an anomaly, and honestly, Ariel wasn’t sure how people coped.

Not to say she had chosen the best place to keep cool. Hair in one hand, held up as she fanned herself with her other, she was reminded that this was apparently the _coolest_ day so far. Heat rises, she reminds herself, and doesn’t open her eyes in fear of the sweat that she could feel pooling all over. Even Elaaden wasn’t this bad! At least there she was able to keep to the Nomad, the safety of her very temperature controlled hardsuit, and shade. 

Clicking her tongue, Ariel was reminded she had forgone the armour, if only at the behest of one email and a _pretty please?_ She hated him. Truly. The absolute shit he put her through, this was by far the worst. Never mind the fact she didn’t want to move from her spot against the wall in fear of peeling her skin off from the lounge. Even moving her left arm just a touch promised grief. Goddamn.

“Reyes.”

“Yes, sweetheart?” Pet names. Hah, he knew he was in trouble.

“Why haven’t you installed even a fan? Or better yet,” and finally she opens her eyes, abandoning her hair in favour of pulling the hem of her shirt up to wipe her face, “let me wear armour. Nice, cool armour.”

There’s a grunt, and Reyes is trying his best to appear as he always had — completely unfazed. But Ariel could see the sweat, and definitely noticed the abandonment of jacket and gloves. Despite her best efforts, he refused to remove the lone piece of armour over his shirt (and he was lecturing _her_ on appropriate ‘date’ wear!). “Temperature controlled,” she emphasised, poking him in the ribs with her toe. Boots had been lost the moment she walked into Tartarus’ little upstairs area, and Reyes may have received one to the face. 

Dangerous, definitely. It would be just her luck to catch something from the brief barefoot walk, but that was beside the point when Reyes was quite happy with her feet in his lap, going through business while massaging her calves with a free hand. And he was _very_ good with his hands.

“This isn’t a date, by the way.”

“Mmhmm.”

“A date would be like… movies. Dinner. Aquarium.”

Reyes doesn’t take his eyes off the screens, but Ariel didn’t know if she was more irritated that he was actually listening to her, or that he was right. “There are no aquariums in Andromeda.” 

“ _Yet_.” Sooner or later there would be, and she would be the first person in line, just you watch.

“Yet,” he conceded. Ariel actually catches him looking at her at that, and, well, if he decided to follow through on that ‘yet’, that would be something else.

Alas, she sticks to thinking of places far cooler than Tartarus, Kadara Port, Hell. “We should go to Voeld. They have giant space whales that sing. _Better_ than an aquarium.” She had nearly frozen her tits off following them around over the ice, just because they were so _pretty_. Voeld was quite pretty anyway, when it wasn’t just blistering cold winds. Maybe she should detour back for whatever reason she could bullshit, just so she could chill out (hah!). 

“I don’t like the cold.”

That little fact actually explained so much about him at once, and well, she would’ve probed for more information on just _what_ kind of cold Reyes had experienced (nothing like nearly a hundred below freezing, surely), but didn’t. Instead, Ariel held off to give a petulant: “You suck.”

His mouth actually twitches a little at that. Was it close to throwing in the towel, figuratively and literally, because she sure could do with one right now. Peeling her arm free of the lounge, very aware that she lost several layers of skin in one go, she considers removing the rest of herself, when it suddenly goes rather dark in the room.

“Finished?” she asks, noticing a severe absence of screens that had huddled around Reyes’ head only seconds before. 

“Hardly. Time for a break I think, at the very least.” 

With that statement, Reyes takes his glass, ice desperately trying to survive against the edges, and holds it up to her forehead. Initial cold takes her by surprise, but she can’t help the sigh when he moves it over her temples, cheeks, throat. “Sorry for neglecting you again. And I even invited you here.”

“I know. How terrible.” A mumble, because Ariel was enjoying making the ice melt, especially when Reyes reaches around, raising her hair, and holds it against the back of her neck. Very close to her face now, enough that she can press a kiss to the tip of his nose. “Thank you.”

“Maybe I should consider getting fans installed. Yet… seeing you like this…” Hand teasing along the hem of her tank top, and yet she was a little too heat exhausted to even think up a witty reply.

“As much as I would _love_ to, right now I just—” puff of air leaves her. Everything was just completely toasted, probably burnt. Nothing would work. 

“No harm done, Ariel. Although,” his hand was on her arm now, glass holding the now cold water running down her limb, “I had thought SAM would have been able to help.”

“I think SAM’s just… struggling too.”

“You survive a place like Voeld — quite well, I’m told — and yet you struggle with a little heat.”

Making a noise in the back of her throat when he finally sets the glass down, Ariel takes his hands in hers. There’s still some remnants of condensation on his fingers, and it’s warm once she realises. “Reyes, you know what this means?”

“Do I dare ask?” Suspicion in his eyes as he looks over her face. Maybe he thinks the heat really has gotten to her. She definitely was starting to believe that, too.

Without skipping a beat, Ariel answers earnestly. “We’re not good for each other.”

Laughter hits her, full and loud, coupled with an “oh, do tell why.”

“You wear jeans in hot weather. And most definitely not temperature controlled armour. I like the snow and air-conditioning on the Tempest. We can’t be together. I’m sorry, but this is how it ends.” Ariel says this all with a completely straight face, because honestly, what kind of person didn’t enjoy snow? The most terrible kind, that’s who. This was the true face of the Charlatan, and it hurt Ariel in ways she could never have imagined. The utter betrayal. 

“Clearly, you had never experienced snow up until Voeld.”

“I lived on a space station my entire life, Reyes, you _know_ this.”

“That I do.” Now he was just entertaining her for the sake of it. But his eyes were still smiling, so clearly Reyes hadn’t considered sending her back to the Tempest with a ‘warning: heat exhaustion’ sign on her forehead. Truly a wonder at that. 

“Snow is incredible. So… _cold_.”

With a snort, Reyes simply hands her a glass of water. “I’m sure.”

“I’m breaking up with you.”

“So you said.”

“Nothing will make me come back.”

“Of course, that’s understandable.”

“You can beg all you like, but it’s a ‘no’.”

“A shame. I quite enjoy begging for the right cause.” Ever so nonchalantly, he takes a sip at his own glass, and Ariel had forgotten for one whole minute just who she was talking to. 

“I—” well, that caused a hiccup in her sentences, and Ariel honestly can’t quite continue. Opting to take a sip of her water, she can’t think of another sentence. Takes another. “Well, that’s—” Drinks the entire glass and very carefully places it on the table. Damn.

“Ariel Ryder…” ah, here it comes. Maybe he was going to say something to be all witty and disarming again. Preparing herself, letting a hand be taken, held in his, she stares into his eyes and receives a: “I am not going to the snow with you.”

“Reyes!” 

All he does is laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> i didn't know if i should use my ryder's name but then i was like fuq it because other people have. in like two days i'll just get embarrassed and change it i'm sure. watch this space. 
> 
> also the title is dumb just bc rly it's that or "untitled 1". and considering this is eventually going in a series SHRUGS


End file.
